Jay’s working until 9:00 tonight doing some crazy policeman holiday overtime nonsense, and I already promised him cookies, so I figured while I had time and was already in the kitchen I’d make something else simple and quick and kill two birds with one stone.  I’m feeling a bit under the weather, its freezing cold today and while most of the snow that fell last night is gone, its still bitter cold. While I was thinking about what would be an easy yet cozy and warm  and comforting thing to make, I noticed I (once again) have three mushy overripe bananas. And then it came to me- banana bread.

As the great and all-knowing Wikipedia says:

Banana bread first became a standard feature of American cookbooks with the popularization of baking soda and baking powder in the 1930s (and appears in Pillsbury‘s 1933 Balanced Recipes cookbook). The origin of the first banana bread recipe is unknown. The home baking revival of the 1960s and the simplicity of its recipe led to an explosion in banana bread’s popularity. The cookbooks of the 1960s added to its popularity because they commonly listed multiple variations of bread that added fruits and nuts.

This one doesn’t have nuts in it, though there are recipes for banana nut bread out there. It doesn’t use buttermilk, or whole wheat flour either. This is just a simple, old school, straightforward banana bread recipe. Nothing complicated, and perfect for a 1-2-3 snack. Well, it takes roughly an hour to bake, but its so easy otherwise that that time can just be considered free time to do something else.

BANANA BREAD

Ingredients:

• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 2 large eggs
• 3 ripe bananas
• 1 tablespoon milk
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Butter a 9 x 5 x 3 inch loaf pan.*
2. Cream the sugar and butter in a large mixing bowl until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.
3. In a small bowl, mash the bananas with a fork. Mix in the milk and cinnamon. In another bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
4. Add the banana mixture to the creamed mixture and stir until combined. Add dry ingredients, mixing just until flour disappears.
5. Pour batter into prepared pan and bake 1 hour to 1 hour 10 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Set aside to cool on a rack for 15 minutes. Remove bread from pan, invert onto rack and cool completely before slicing.
6. Spread slices with honey or serve with ice cream.

*My pan was like 8.4 x 4.5 x 2.7 or something… it wasn’t quite the measurements given, yet it did the job just fine. It took a bit longer to bake, thats all.

See? I told you I’d have more recipes for you! And could it get any easier than this?

Its such an quick and simple and brainless recipe it’d be really cool to give as gifts. Anything handmade or hime baked is always welcomed and people would assume tons of effort went into it. Just make a few loaves of it, wrap them in fancy cellophane (red, green or the kind thats printed with stars or holly) and tie with a pretty bow. Add a gift tag and some instructions for how to serve it, and there you go. Much better than a fruitcake.

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